The Daytona 200 will not be on television in 2014. Maybe if it were cars they'd have better luck?image by DFA

A hard lesson we've learned is to not get between an American and his TV set if the news is bad about potential programming issues. However, with just a week to go before the Daytona 200--and barring some kind of last-minute call from the Governor--it seems clear that the Daytona 200 will not be televised by any major network in 2014.

It's a serious statement when the owner of a racing series has enough money to actually buy his own network, but his races aren't on any form of conventional television (some sort of web broadcast is planned for Daytona). Last Fall's Laguna "hiccup" where the final round of the championship wasn't televised even though the Superbike championship went to the final race was termed an "anomaly" and due to circumstances beyond the control of the DMG. Now, with Daytona missing from any kind of network TV broadcast, it's clear something is broken and that Laguna's TV non-broadcast wasn't an anomaly.

Just about any way it's cut, DMG has had a horrible off season. No TV for the Daytona 200--Daytona Supercross is, of course, televised--is only the most recent bad news. For example: